A variety of vehicle seat headrests are utilized in modern day vehicles. More recently, headrests have been provided as additional comfort and safety features for passengers sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle. Although the inclusion of headrests on a rear seat enhances the passenger's comfort and safety, a driver's view through the rear window of the vehicle is typically obstructed by the presence of the headrest.
It has been suggested, therefore, to provide a headrest that is foldable relative to the seatback when it is not in use such that the headrest no longer obstructs the driver's vision through the rear window. One such foldable headrest is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,233 issued to Hideo Nagashima. Such headrests are useful, however, there are several shortcomings and drawbacks associated with them. First, most foldable headrests include complex gearing mechanisms for enabling the headrest to be moved into a folded, non-use position. Such complex gearing mechanisms undesirably increase the complexity of the vehicle seat and are not easily adapted for use within most conventional vehicle seats. Further, the complex gearing mechanisms typically require extensive customizing work in designing the vehicle seat. The gearing mechanisms are also cumbersome and subject to mechanical breakdown. Further, such complex gearing mechanisms increase the weight of a vehicle, which is seen as particularly undesirable where fuel economies are important.
A significant shortcoming associated with conventional foldable headrests is that the orientation of the headrest relative to the seatback is typically not adjustable independent of the gearing mechanism used for moving the headrest into the non-use position. This is undesirably limiting because different passengers may desire a variety of orientations of the headrest relative to the seatback for greater comfort.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a headrest that overcomes the shortcomings and drawbacks discussed above. This invention provides a headrest that is foldable into a non-use position, which does not require a complex gearing mechanism. Further, this invention provides a headrest that has an adjustability feature that is independent of the mechanism for moving the headrest into a non-use position.